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OPINIONS

Twenty things in twenty years part ten: the main point of focusing on pronunciation in class isn’t to improve pronunciation!
Pronunciation is quite possibly the most neglected area of language teaching. In many of the classes I’ve observed over the
01-03-2021
Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Nine: the vast majority of mistakes really aren’t to do with grammar!
The world used to be so tidy. Back in the misty morning of my youth, I seriously did naively believe
22-01-2021
Five more things I’ve learned from running the ENGLISH QUESTIONS ANSWERED group
Two years ago now, I set up a Facebook group called ENGLISH QUESTIONS ANSWERED. In a sense, it was a
26-11-2020
Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Eight: There’s nothing as practical as a good theory
In the early years of my career, like many others in my profession, I suffered from an insatiable hunger for
07-11-2020
The curse of native speakerism
Many moons ago, I used to work in the EFL department of a university here in London. Among my colleagues
20-10-2020
Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Seven: Input is more important than output
To say that the CTEFLA that was my gateway into the world of English Language Teaching encouraged me to be
26-09-2020
Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Six: Resistance is futile – but still remarkably widespread
When I was in my mid-20s living in Jakarta and trying to learn Indonesian, I reached a point where I
25-06-2020
Back to School Part Four: homework … or the lack of it.
In recent years, we've seen much made of the idea of the ‘flipped’ classroom. In ELT terms, this often involves
16-06-2020
Why ‘Is it formal or informal?’ is perhaps my most-hated question in ELT
Let's face it, over the years, we've probably all asked plenty of questions in class that we later look back
02-06-2020
Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Five: there really is no need for needs analysis!
One of the more ridiculous notions instilled in me on my month-long CELTA course taken back in the early 1990s
03-05-2020